


The way back home

by cirque



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Athena being all lonely and cynical..., IN SPACE!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-16 11:53:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/861706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cirque/pseuds/cirque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Athena has a spaceship. Athena has a spaceship, no crew, a broken navigational system, and a metric tonne of survivor guilt, but the main point is the ship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The way back home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [havisham](https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/gifts).



> Hello there giftee, your prompt for a Greek mythology AU really struck out at me, and I tried to integrate the characters you requested as best I could. I hope you like this, and I hope I didn't butcher your prompt too much. This is a treat btw.

Athena has a ship. Athena has a ship, no crew, a broken navigational system, and a metric tonne of survivor guilt, but the main point is the ship. It is small, as ships go, a central bridge with several cabins and a mostly-non-functional kitchen. If she had a crew she knows it would be pretty cramped, but it is perfectly sufficient for one displaced Pantheon deity. Especially considering the fact that she's mostly non-corporeal these days.

 _The Arcadia_ is actually her pride and joy, not that she'll admit it. She's never been one for material possessions, but slumbering for a millennia and waking in an entirely new world can change a goddess. The world into which she emerged is too changed to be recognizable; ships in the sky, scars on the planet, poison in the seas. Humans have burst through the galaxy like insects and no one knows her name, never mind worships her.

She had called to Zeus immediately upon waking. He did not answer. She took a walk through his old domain, her feet back-treading through Olympus as if she had never left, but it was entirely deserted. She called for Apollo, for Artemis, but they were beyond hearing. She searched for Hephaestus, for Hades even, but they too had disappeared. They had all passed beyond her reach, dispersed throughout humanity's new empire, lost to the dredges of space.

Athena was unsure why she alone remained with Earth. She nursed her loneliness for a while in Olympus, her eyes on Athens as though an Olympic hero would come strolling forwards and demand a quest for eternal glory. No one came. Athena was alone. Her Godly powers no longer worked, her mind was closed and empty, for what good is a Goddess of Wisdom if there is no one to believe in her?

She got _The Arcadia_ after three months in which she came to learn that, first: the Earth was entirely forsaken of any of the Old Religions, and second: space was where the action was. If Zeus and the others were anywhere, it would be out there.

The ship cost her an armful of gold and riches that she gathered up from Olympus. She sits at the bridge sometimes and lets her hands wander, pressing lightly over buttons. She likes the cheerful way in which they light up green and yellow under her divine touch. She likes the responsive bleeping of the comms system, the way the polytonal chimes echo around her empty ship. She likes the solitude, mostly.

She had the updated computer system installed on the New Alexandria space-station, just fifteen clicks north-west of the dog-star. She paid a young man in Olympic riches to barter with the electronics and fix the system up so that _The Arcadia_ 's artificial intelligence has a voice. She named him Orpheus, for old time's sake.

"My lady," says Orpheus now, his dual-sound voice clicking on over the communicator.

"Yes?"

"We're coming up on the planet Argos, do you wish to dock?"

She takes this with a grain of salt if the ship's bungled nav system is anything to go by. She lowers the shields and takes a look outside and, sure enough, she can see the blueish brown surface of Argos roiling in smoke below her. It sits in a rare pocket of balanced atmosphere, perfect for humanity and also not too far from any of the major spaceports. The planet is surrounded by dark clouds that promise a breathable atmosphere and, later on, rain.

"Yes, Orpheus, we'll dock here."

"Very well." She likes that about him: he doesn't question her. He is happy to stick to the plan, even if the plan is half-hatched and doesn't really involve much beyond docking at the best-looking planet in the dim hope of finding a half decent crew. She is thankful for Orpheus's loyalty.

"I'm thankful for your loyalty, Orpheus," she tells him, because she really doesn't say it enough.

There is silence for a few moments, until the polytonal comm system clicks on again. "Thank you m'lady but, with all due respect, I'm planning on abandoning you for the first powerful cargo ship I see." It's hard enough to tell when he is joking, but she catches his voice go up a few semitones with humor.

She taps the large, sleek speaker above her navigation seat that functions as his primary interface. "Good luck with that."

He falls silent as he concentrates his power on preparing the ship for docking. Athena opts to leave the shields up so that she can watch the planet grow closer, and is so lost in the awe of this simple thing that she almost misses her docking request when it comes through on the comms.

" _Arcadia_ this is Argos Central Command, do you read?"

"Yes!" She brings her hand down a little too hard on the outgoing comms button, and swears she hears Orpheus sigh in disapproval. "This is _The Arcadia_ , reading you loud and clear."

" _Arcadia,_ what is your business here?" The voice on the other end sounds cheerful enough, but Athena knows how overworked they are at Central Commands on the big planets. She does not envy him his job. Argos is a black hole for tourists and business-folk alike.

"I'm in the market for a few crew-members, and I figured Argos was a great place to start." She doesn't tell him how Argos is actually the eighth planet she's trawled for volunteers in as many weeks. "Requesting permission to dock?"

"You're right about that ma'am. Good luck on your journey. Docking request granted."

"Thank you." She turns to her visual interface screen and watches as a message rolls up from the bottom, in tiny green lettering: _Stardate: 13063345, location Argos Central Command, Poseidon Galaxy, PERMISSION GRANTED. Duration of stay: 24 hours MAXIMUM. Penalty fees will apply if you exceed this duration. Use of weapons and teleportation devices is prohibited on Argos. Have a nice day._

* * *

 

When she is on-planet, Athena often assumes the guise of her preferred human form, a woman of tall stature and regal aura, red curly hair, divine eyes, beautiful clothes in a similar style to the ones she wore on Olympus. She is respectful of the fact that humanity has come a long way since those days, and is aware of the fact that many people will think her weird or backwards, but this does not bother her. The majority of lifeforms on Argos are human, but she is not too concerned. She doesn't have to worry about them recognizing her, at any rate.

Stepping out of Central Command, she is greeted by a dusty marketplace that smells strongly of spilt wine and old food. The place is mostly deserted in favor of the rainclouds that lurk above, and she feels the wind pick up and whip her hair into her face.

The whole thing kind of reminds her of Mycenae before humanity really got started on industry and agriculture, and it is with a heavy sense of nostalgia in her stomach that Athena walks through the market. The ground crunches beneath her feet and she wants to slip her sandals off and take a walk barefoot, but she knows that kind of behavior isn't befitting of a goddess, never mind a visitor to a strange planet.

Her clothes are still bedraggled from the requisite body search at Central Command, and she doesn't really have the opportunity to fix them what with the buffeting winds, and so it is in this half-undone state that she finds herself face to face, quite literally, with her first Argos native.

"Hey," says the girl, knocking directly into Athena's front, "Watch yourself."

Athena remembers a time when no human would speak to her like that. Or, in Odysseus' case, they would at least ask permission first. She laughs fondly and reaches out to steady the girl. She is young, perhaps too young to be out alone this close to Central Command, and has dark hair down to her waist. She is beautiful, in the kind of old fashioned sense that Athena hasn’t seen since the Old Days. She wears a simple white dress and is shockingly barefoot. She has the damndest expression on her face; anger and annoyance and a deep-set sadness in her blue eyes.

She flinches at Athena's touch, pushing backwards. "Hey, if you're going to rob me-" And she looks up to glare into Athena's eyes, and it is this that stops her. She falls silent. Her mouth drops open. Athena starts to ask if she is ok, but then the girl drops to her knees.

"My goddess, forgive me." She says this with her head bowed. It is a sight that Athena hasn't seen in so long that her first thought is concern for the girl, and not recognition of a supplicant. _Oh._

"You… know who I am?"

"Of course, my lady. You are wise and magnificent, and I worried that you were long-since gone from this world like your kin, yet here you are. I saw the signs and I refused to believe." The girl presses her chin into her chest, admonishing herself. Athena thinks she is crying, and wishes the girl would meet her eyes.

"I forgive you. Look at me now."

The girl obeys. Her tears are unwiped and she looks angry. She balls her hands into fists by her side. "I am sorry my goddess. I ought to have believed you would come, but I ignored the signs."

Above them the clouds crack, and Athena knows it will not be too long before the rain starts.

"How could you have known I would come? I have been gone for many years; I am surprised you recognize me."

The girl frowns. "How could I not? You are my goddess. I have always known you. Years are nothing compared to that. Inside my head I see a thousand different pictures, I hear a thousand different stories, but there is always you weaving them together. You are Athena, and my mind makes sense now."

Athena is not quite sure what to make of this. All this time she has been searching for some remnant of the Old Days and now that she has found it she isn't sure whether to be grateful or confused. "You have always known me? But, you can't be more than a maiden. A teenager, maybe?"

"Yes. I'll be fifteen come Midwinter. But that's not important – I see you inside my head, I hear you, and so I've known you all my life. I recognized you, didn't I?"

Athena gets a weird feeling in her stomach, like maybe her reminiscing for the Old Days wasn't entirely in vain after all. "What is your name, child?"

"Cassandra."

Athena starts thinking maybe the Old Days aren't lost after all.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of an ongoing weird AU-type headcanon I've constructed in my mind where, after the breakdown of Ancient culture & the rise of Western civilization, the Greek deities went into some sort of hibernation on Olympus and time continued passing by. This story would be set far, far, far into the future, and Athena has woken to find herself the only member of Olympus still around...


End file.
